Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  » 
April,  1911.  f 
Keeping  Qualities  of  Ergot. 
175 
forward  evidence  which  served  to  convince  us  of  the  reUabiUty  of  this 
process  of  chemical  assay.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  my  con- 
clusions concerning  the  deterioration  of  the  fluid  extract  of  ergot  are 
not  based  purely  upon  this  chemical  evidence,  but  also  upon  a 
number  of  physiological  tests.  We  have  found  that  the  loss  of 
activity  as  measured  by  its  power  to  raise  the  blood  pressure  occurred 
more  or  less  harmoniously  with  the  figures  just  quoted,  although  we 
have  only  four  samples  concerning  which  we  have  complete  records 
of  the  rapidity  of  change  in  physiological  power  under  varying 
conditions. 
As  to  the  details  of  keeping,  I  may  say  that  with  the  exception 
of  the  sealed  bottles,  which  were  invariably  of  amber-colored  glass, 
no  effort  was  made  to  protect  the  drug  against  the  effects  of  the 
light,  as  we  wished,  in  the  one  instance,  tO'  imitate,  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible, conditions  in  the  retail  pharmacy,  and  in  the  other  instance, 
to  see  how  rapidly  the  fluid  extract  would  lose  strength  under  the 
most  favorable  conditions  for  such  change. 
There  are  prominent  obstetricians  who  maintain  that  ergot  is  an 
inert  drug,  so  unfortunate  has  been  their  experience  with  its  use. 
It  is  manifest  that  the  poor  quality  of  ergot  upon  the  market  is 
robbing  the  medical  profession  of  a  very  valuable  tool,  and  endanger- 
ing the  lives  of  those  patients  whose  physicians  place  too  much 
confidence  in  this  drug.  There  is,  therefore,  crying  need  for  correc- 
tion of  this  really  horrible  state  of  affairs.  In  view  of  the  fact  that 
there  is  still  much  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  best  methods  of 
testing  the  activity  of  ergot,  and  also  of  the  fact  that  none  of  these 
methods  can  be  satisfactorily  conducted  by  retail  pharmacists, — 
while  the  method  of  chemical  assay  suggested  by  myself  is  simple 
enough  for  any  pharmacist  to  carry  out,  modesty  forbids  me 
urging  it  as  a  universal  test  until  its  value  has  been  confirmed  by 
other  observers, — it  is  essential  that  pharmacists  do  what  they  can 
to  see  that  their  fluid  extract  at  least  fully  represents  the  crude 
drug  from  which  it  was  manufactured.  For  this  reason,  I  would 
vigorously  urge :  ( i )  that  the  fluid  extract  of  ergot  be  marketed  by 
wholesalers  in  packages  of  not  over  four  fluid  ounces,  and  immedi- 
ately after  the  completion  of  the  percolation; (2) thsit  each  bottle  carrv 
plainly  upon  the  label  the  date  of  its  manufacture  1(3)  that  no  phar- 
macist be  permitted  to  dispense  a  fluid  extract  of  ergot  which  is  more 
than  six  months  old. 
